ICT news

• Microsoft Releases a Copilot App For Mac

  28-02-2025 01:45 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has released a native Copilot app for macOS, offering AI-powered text and image generation, dark mode, and a Command + Space shortcut. The Verge reports: Microsoft is launching this new Copilot Mac app in the US, UK, and Canada today, and the iPad version is also being updated with a split screen mode. You'll also now be able to log into Copilot on an iPhone or iPad with an Apple ID, and upload text or PDF files to ask questions about the documents or generate a summary about them. Thi
  
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• FBI Seizes RAMP Cybercrime Forum Used By Ransomware Gangs

  29-01-2026 11:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  joshuark shares a report from BleepingComputer: The FBI has seized the notorious RAMP cybercrime forum, a platform used to advertise a wide range of malware and hacking services, and one of the few remaining forums that openly allowed the promotion of ransomware operations. Both the forum's Tor site and its clearnet domain, ramp4u[.]io, now display a seizure notice stating, "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has seized RAMP."While there has been no official announcement by law enforcement rega
  
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• Brandon Sanderson's Literary Fantasy Universe 'Cosmere' Picked Up by Apple TV

  29-01-2026 08:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Apple TV+ has landed the screen rights to Cosmere, the sprawling literary universe created by Brandon Sanderson. "The first titles being eyed for adaptation are the Mistborn series, for features, and The Stormlight Archive series, for television," reports the Hollywood Reporter. From the report: The deal is rare one, coming after a competitive situation which saw Sanderson meet with most of the studio heads in town. It gives the author rarefied control over the screen translations, according to
  
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• Extremophile Molds Are Invading Art Museums

  29-01-2026 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  Scientific American's Elizabeth Anne Brown recently "polled the great art houses of Europe" about whether they'd had any recent experiences with mold in their collections. Despite the stigma that keeps many institutions silent, she found that extremophile "xerophilic" molds are quietly spreading through museums and archives, thriving in low-humidity, tightly sealed storage and damaging everything from textiles and wood to manuscripts and stone. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares an excerpt from
  
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• Fully Electric Vehicle Sales In EU Overtake Petrol For First Time In December

  29-01-2026 03:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from Reuters: Fully electric car sales in December overtook petrol for the first time in the European Union, even as policymakers proposed to loosen emissions regulations, data showed on Tuesday. U.S. battery-electric brand Tesla continued to lose market share to competitors including China's BYD and Europe's best-selling group Volkswagen, data from the European auto lobby ACEA showed.Car sales throughout Europe sustained a sixth straight month of
  
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• Kernel Community Drafts a Plan For Replacing Linus Torvalds

  29-01-2026 02:25 via linux.slashdot.org
  The Linux kernel community has formalized a continuity plan for the day Linus Torvalds eventually steps aside, defining how the process would work to replace him as the top-level maintainer. ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols reports: The new "plan for a plan," drafted by longtime kernel contributor Dan Williams, was discussed at the latest Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit in Tokyo, where he introduced it as "an uplifting subject tied to our eventual march toward death." Torvalds added, in our convers
  
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• French Lawmakers Vote To Ban Social Media Use By Under-15s

  29-01-2026 01:45 via mobile.slashdot.org
  French lawmakers have voted to ban social media access for children under 15 and prohibit mobile phones in high schools, positioning France as the second country after Australia to impose sweeping age-based digital restrictions. The Guardian reports: The lower national assembly adopted the text by a vote of 130 to 21 in a lengthy overnight session from Monday to Tuesday. It will now go to the Senate, France's upper house, ahead of becoming law. Macron hailed the vote as a "major step" to protect
  
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• Software Company Bonds Drop As Investors' AI Worries Mount

  29-01-2026 01:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Investors are souring on the bonds of software companies that service industries ranging from automotive to finance as fast-paced artificial intelligence innovations threaten to upend their business models. [...] Bond prices tumbled as advances in artificial intelligence rack up. Google announced plans to launch an AI assistant to browse for internet surfers Wednesday while a customer support startup, Decagon AI Inc., raised a new round of fund
  
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• Apple Tells Patreon To Move Creators To In-App Purchase For Subscriptions

  29-01-2026 00:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple is forcing Patreon to move all remaining creators onto Apple's in-app purchase subscription system by November 2026 "or else Patreon would risk removal from the App Store," reports TechCrunch. "Apple made this decision because Patreon was managing the billing for some percentage of creators' subscriptions, and the tech giant saw that as skirting its App Store commission structure." The tech giant initially told Patreon that it must do so by November 2025, but the deadline was pushed back.
  
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• Google Says AI Agent Can Now Browse on Users' Behalf

  28-01-2026 23:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google is rolling out an "auto browse" AI agent in Chrome that can navigate websites, fill out forms, compare prices, and handle tedious online tasks on a user's behalf. Bloomberg reports: The feature, called auto browse, will allow users to ask an assistant powered by Gemini to complete tasks such as shopping for them without leaving Chrome, said Charmaine D'Silva, a director of product. Chrome users will be able to plan a family trip by asking Gemini to open different airline and hotel website
  
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• US Cyber Defense Chief Uploaded Sensitive Files Into a Public Version of ChatGPT

  28-01-2026 23:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: The interim head of the country's cyber defense agency uploaded sensitive contracting documents into a public version of ChatGPT last summer, triggering multiple automated security warnings that are meant to stop the theft or unintentional disclosure of government material from federal networks, according to four Department of Homeland Security officials with knowledge of the incident. The apparent misstep from Madhu Gottumukkala was especially
  
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• Amazon is Ending Its Palm ID System for Retail, Amazon One, as It Closes Physical Stores

  28-01-2026 22:22 via yro.slashdot.org
  Amazon is discontinuing its Amazon One palm recognition ID system for stores later this year, the company informed users. From a report: The company will discontinue Amazon One services at retail businesses on June 3, 2026, according to a support page for the service and email messages to customers. "In response to limited customer adoption, we're discontinuing Amazon One, our authentication service for facility access and payment," an Amazon spokesperson said. "All customer data associated with
  
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• Urban Expansion in the Age of Liberalism

  28-01-2026 21:44 via slashdot.org
  The housing shortages plaguing Western cities today stem partly from the abandonment of a 19th century urban governance model that enabled cities like Berlin, New York and Chicago to expand rapidly while keeping real house prices flat and homes increasingly affordable.
  A new analysis by Works in Progress argues that Victorian-era urban management wasn't laissez-faire but rather a system carefully designed to align private profit with public benefit. Infrastructure monopolies -- whether privately
  
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• Cancer Might Protect Against Alzheimer's

  28-01-2026 21:02 via science.slashdot.org
  For decades, researchers have noted that cancer and Alzheimer's disease are rarely found in the same person, fuelling speculation that one condition might offer some degree of protection from the other. Nature: Now, a study in mice provides a possible molecular solution to the medical mystery: a protein produced by cancer cells seems to infiltrate the brain, where it helps to break apart clumps of misfolded proteins that are often associated with Alzheimer's disease. The study, which was 15 year
  
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• Experian's Tech Chief Defends Credit Scores: 'We're Not Palantir'

  28-01-2026 20:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  When asked directly whether people actually like Experian, Alex Lintner, the credit bureau's CEO of Software and Technology, offered an unusual defense in an interview: "First of all, we're not Palantir, so we don't do reputation scores." Speaking on The Verge's podcast, Lintner conceded that consumers who have poor credit scores through "life's circumstances" sometimes direct their frustration at Experian, though he argued the company enables vital access to credit for 247 million Americans.
  Th
  
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• There's a Rash of Scam Spam Coming From a Real Microsoft Address

  28-01-2026 19:48 via it.slashdot.org
  There are reports that a legitimate Microsoft email address -- which Microsoft explicitly says customers should add to their allow list -- is delivering scam spam. ArsTechnica: The emails originate from [email protected], an address tied to Power BI. The Microsoft platform provides analytics and business intelligence from various sources that can be integrated into a single dashboard. Microsoft documentation says that the address is used to send subscription emails to mail-enabled s
  
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• Apple Sued by App Developer Over its Continuity Camera

  28-01-2026 19:01 via apple.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple is being sued by Reincubate, which makes the Camo smartphone webcam app. It has filed a lawsuit against Apple in a U.S. federal court in New Jersey, accusing the company of anticompetitive conduct and patent infringement. The suit alleges that Apple copied Camo's technology, integrated similar features into iOS, and used control over its software ecosystem to disadvantage Reincubate's Camo product.
  Reincubate's Camo and Camo Studio apps allow iOS or And
  
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• Tim Berners-Lee Wants Us To Take Back the Internet

  28-01-2026 18:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  mspohr shares a report: When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, his vision was clear: it would used by everyone, filled with everything and, crucially, it would be free. Today, the British computer scientist's creation is regularly used by 5.5 billion people -- and bears little resemblance to the democratic force for humanity he intended.
  Since Berners-Lee's disappointment a decade ago, he's thrown everything at a project that completely shifts the way data is held on the w
  
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• What's the 'Best' Month for New Movies and Music? A Statistical Analysis

  28-01-2026 17:45 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  An analysis of film and music release patterns has found that summer and late fall are the optimal windows for movie premieres, while the music industry has no clear "best" month -- only a worst one, December, which the report's author dubbed "Dump-cember."
  For films, the calendar splits into distinct strategic zones. Summer months and holidays see elevated box office because audiences have more free time, and studios chase mega-billion-dollar hits during these windows. October and November see
  
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• 430,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools Are the Oldest Ever Found

  28-01-2026 17:15 via science.slashdot.org
  Early hominins in Europe were creating tools from raw materials hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens arrived there, two new studies indicate, pushing back the established time for such activity. From a report: The evidence includes a 500,000-year-old hammer made of elephant or mammoth bone, excavated in southern England, and 430,000-year-old wooden tools found in southern Greece -- the earliest wooden tools on record.
  The findings suggest that early humans possessed sophisticated t
  
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• 30,000 More UPS Jobs On the Chopping Block as Amazon Era Ends

  28-01-2026 16:29 via slashdot.org
  UPS said today it plans to eliminate an additional 30,000 operational jobs this year as the shipping giant continues to wind down its partnership with Amazon -- previously its largest customer -- and push forward a broader turnaround strategy under CEO Carol Tome.
  CFO Brian Dykes said on an earnings call that the cuts will be accomplished through attrition and a voluntary separation program for full-time drivers. The company also plans to further deploy automation across its network. UPS has ide
  
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• Android's Full Desktop Mode Surfaces in Accidental Chromium Leak

  28-01-2026 15:43 via slashdot.org
  A bug report filed on the Chromium Issue Tracker inadvertently exposed Google's desktop Android interface for the first time, revealing a system codenamed "Aluminum OS" running on existing Chromebook hardware. The report, ostensibly about Chrome Incognito tabs, included screen captures from an HP Elite Dragonfly 13.5 Chromebook running Android 16.
  The status bar has been redesigned for large screens -- taller than the tablet version, displaying time with seconds, date, battery, Wi-Fi, a notifica
  
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• 'Clawdbot' Has AI Techies Buying Mac Minis

  28-01-2026 14:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An open-source AI agent originally called Clawdbot (now renamed Moltbot) is gaining cult popularity among developers for running locally, 24/7, and wiring itself into calendars, messages, and other personal workflows. The hype has gone so far that some users are buying Mac Minis just to host the agent full-time, even as its creator warns that's unnecessary. Business Insider reports: Founded by [creator Peter Steinberger], it's an AI agent that manages "digital life," from emails to home automati
  
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• Amazon Cuts Another 16,000 Jobs

  28-01-2026 11:43 via slashdot.org
  Amazon announced on Wednesday that it is eliminating approximately 16,000 roles across the company as part of organizational changes that began in October 2025 and are only now being finalized by certain teams. Senior Vice President Beth Galetti shared the news in a memo to employees, framing the reductions as an effort to reduce layers, increase ownership, and remove bureaucracy. The memo follows another memo that the company accidentally sent to employees.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Asteroid 2024 YR4 Has a 4% Chance of Hitting the Moon

  28-01-2026 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Universe Today: There's a bright side to every situation. In 2032, the Moon itself might have a particularly bright side if it is blasted by a 60-meter-wide asteroid. The chances of such an event are still relatively small (only around 4%), but non-negligible. And scientists are starting to prepare both for the bad (massive risks to satellites and huge meteors raining down on a large portion of the planet) and the good (a once in a lifetime chance to stud
  
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• Ancient Martian Beach Discovered, Providing New Clues To Planet's Habitability

  28-01-2026 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: New findings from NASA's Perseverance rover have revealed evidence of wave-formed beaches and rocks altered by subsurface water in a Martian crater that once held a vast lake -- considerably expanding the timeline for potential habitability at this ancient site. In an international study led by Imperial College London, researchers uncovered that the so-called 'Margin unit' in Mars's Jezero crater preserves evidence of extensive underground interac
  
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• Amazon Inadvertently Announces Cloud Unit Layoffs In Email To Employees

  28-01-2026 06:00 via slashdot.org
  Amazon appears to have prematurely acknowledged layoffs inside AWS after an internal email referencing "organizational changes" and "impacted colleagues" was mistakenly sent to cloud employees. CNBC reports: "Changes like this are hard on everyone," Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of applied AI solutions at Amazon Web Services, wrote in an email viewed by CNBC. "These decisions are difficult and are made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success." The note als
  
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• US Government Lost More Than 10,000 STEM PhDs Last Year

  28-01-2026 04:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science.org: Some 10,109 doctoral-trained experts in science and related fields left their jobs last year as President Donald Trump dramatically shrank the overall federal workforce. That exodus was only 3% of the 335,192 federal workers who exited last year but represents 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or health fields employed at the end of 2024 as then-President Joe Biden prepared to leave office.
  
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• Apple Updates iOS 12 For the First Time Since 2023

  28-01-2026 03:02 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple quietly released its first update to iOS 12 since 2023 to keep iMessage, FaceTime, and device activation working on older hardware through January 2027. The update applies to legacy devices like the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6/6 Plus, and 2013-era iPads. Macworld reports: The update appears to be related to a specific issue. According to Apple's "About iOS 12 Updates" page, iOS 12.5.78 "extends the certificate required by features such as iMessage, FaceTime, and device activation to continue worki
  
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• Scientists Launch AI DinoTracker App That Identifies Dinosaur Footprints

  28-01-2026 02:25 via science.slashdot.org
  Scientists have released DinoTracker, a free AI-powered app that identifies dinosaur footprints by analyzing shape patterns rather than relying on potentially flawed historical labels. "When we find a dinosaur footprint, we try to do the Cinderella thing and find the foot that matches the slipper," said Prof Steve Brusatte, a co-author of the work. "But it's not so simple, because the shape of a dinosaur footprint depends not only on the shape of the dinosaur's foot but also the type of sand or
  
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